Spotlight: DPRK under fire for new missile launch

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) drew fire from the international community for firing yet another missile Friday in defiance of the relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions, which it defended Saturday as a self-defense measure.

According to the South Korean news agency Yonhap, the missile, a BM-25 missile also known as Musudan, is able to reach the U.S. territory of Guam in the Pacific within its 3,000 km range.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff told Xinhua Friday the DPRK tried to launch a missile from its eastern region at about 5:30 a.m. local time (2030 Thursday GMT) and the attempt was estimated to have failed.

The move, allegedly planned to celebrate the birthday of the DPRK's late leader Kim Il Sung, was condemned by the international community for violating United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions restricting the DPRK's nuclear-related activities.

"Although the DPRK's ballistic missile launch was a failure, this attempt constituted a clear violation of UNSC resolutions," the organization said in a statement released Friday.

The DPRK shall refrain from further actions that violate relevant Security Council resolutions and comply fully with its obligations under these resolutions, the statement said.

China, which has been irritated by the DPRK's recent provocations and has imposed sanction on its northern neighbor, urges the DPRK to observe UNSC resolutions and refrain from further actions.

"As the current situation on the Peninsula is complex and sensitive, we hope all parties can comply with the Security Council resolution and avoid worsening tensions," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a regular news briefing Friday.

The United States, the only power outside the region that's deeply involved in the DPRK nuclear issue, issued a condemnation Friday saying the action on the DPRK's part "is in violation of UNSC resolutions that explicitly prohibit the DPRK's use of ballistic missile technology."

The United States "will continue to monitor and assess the situation in close coordination with our regional allies and partners," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told a regular news briefing, adding the United States is "strongly committed" to defending its Asian allies.

The missile test has also put South Korea's military on high alert, which said Friday it is bracing for "further military provocations" by the DPRK as Pyongyang is moving toward more large-scale events down the road, including its ruling party's 7th congress set for early May.

"We are preparing against the possibility that the North could carry out heavyweight provocations at any time, including the fifth nuclear test," Yonhap quoted a military official as saying.

SELF-DEFENSE

Although Pyongyang has not confirmed the firing, its official news agency KCNA issued an English commentary justifying the country's actions as bolstering up "nuclear deterrence for self-defence."

"The U.S. nuclear threat and blackmail and joint military drills are the source of pushing the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of war. It has posed a ceaseless nuclear threat to the DPRK, deploying nuclear weapons in South Korea and staging frantic nuclear war drills against the DPRK for over half a century," the commentary said.

"The DPRK's access to nuclear weapons is not a threat but an inevitable self-defensive option for protecting the country," it said.

The article said, "The DPRK's bolstering of nuclear deterrence is the most just and realistic way for ensuring peace on the Korean peninsula, the biggest hotbed in the world. The stronger the striking capability of the DPRK's nuclear weapons grows, the more powerful the capability to deter aggression and war will become." Endi